Cord Byrd: “I oppose the Shelby amendment. In our zeal to protect consumers from egregious banking and lending practices, I fear the…”

“I oppose the Shelby amendment. In our zeal to protect consumers from egregious banking and lending practices, I fear the Senate is paying too little attention to basic constitutional tenets. The Shelby amendment proposes to create a division for consumer financial protection within the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, to exempt that new entity from the congressional appropriations process. The underlying substitute amendment proposes a similar model-- a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protections within the Federal Reserve System, which would also be exempt from the congressional appropriations process. This is in addition to several exemptions proposed in the underlying substitute amendment--exemptions for the Securities and Exchange Commission, and for new funds for the Securities and Exchange Commission and exemptions for the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission fund to reward whistleblowers. I understand the desire by some to create a new consumer agency, and to elevate its status to that of a banking regulator but, these proposals--the Shelby amendment, and the underlying Democratic substitute--are alarming in the aggregate spending latitude they are recommending for one agency.”